Robert Downey, Jr. walks out of interview after reporter asks about 'dark period' of his life

During the “Avengers: Age of Ultron” world press tour, an interview with Robert Downey, Jr. became incredibly awkward very quickly when a journalist attempted to make a comparison between the actor’s onscreen character Iron Man and his personal real-life struggles.

The interview started to take a turn for the worst when Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the anchor for Britain’s Channel 4 news, asked the 50-year-old actor about a quote from a 2008 New York Times interview in which he said, “you can’t go from a $US2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t.”

Guru-Murthy asked Downey, Jr. what he meant by that. The actor appeared noticeably perplexed as to why he was being asked about his political beliefs.

“I appreciate your point of view,” said Downey, Jr. “Things that you said five, seven years ago or things you said in an interview that made sense to you at the time, I could pick that a part for two hours and [I’d] be no closer to the truth than I’d be giving you some half-a—d answer right now. I couldn’t even really tell you what a liberal is. So, there in lies the answer to your question.”

Guru-Murthy presses on, attempting to ask the actor about his political beliefs noting the actor’s previous incarceration.

Downey, Jr. noted that it seemed like the interview was getting a bit off track from discussing “Age of Ultron.”

The interview gets increasingly harder to watch, especially after the 6 minute mark when Downey, Jr. tells the journalist, “Your foot’s starting to jump a little bit, you better get to your next question.”

From there, it goes downhill more.

The interviewer attempts to continue, “You’ve talked in other interviews again about your relationship with your father and the role of all of that in, you know, the dark periods you went to — taking drugs and drinking and all of that. And, I just wondered whether you think you’re free of all of that or whether that — “

Channel 4 NewsRobert Downey, Jr. looks increasingly more uncomfortable the more British journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy tries to ask him about ‘the dark periods’ in his life.